New economy sound locos?

[Pandora]

The price of Bachmann DCC sound fitted loco has risen by around £40 to £50 over the last couple of years, I think they have run into buying resistance as they hit the £180+ mark.

 

The new economy range is bringing the price down to around 2010 levels from memory.

 

There is nothing remarkable about a sound decoder, it is just a micropic computer chip, the more you pay for the micropic, the more memory you get to store the sounds.  Moores law for semiconductors applies here, performance goes up and price goes down in 18 month cycles, as per laptops, digital cameras etc.

[wirey33]

Has anyone seen any information about which individual locos will be represented ?

 

35-600 Class 20 diesel (RRP £143)

 

35-625 Class 37 diesel  (RRP £148.85)

 

I'm mostly interested in which bodyshell the Class 37 will be (Class 37/4 or 37/0 splitbox or 37/0 Centre Headcode box).

 

Anyone got any more info about these releases? I saw a date of April somewhere at the top of this thread; that's not too far away now...

[Removed a/c]

Bachmann don't even have them listed on their website. 

[ThaneofFife]

 I think they have run into buying resistance as they hit the £180+ mark.

 

think youre about right.   you see so many dcc sound on ebay now that are way beyond what you would expect even on older models.

i think some people are trying to get the same money for their old DS models as the new ones knowing that the prices of new have risen in the last couple of years.

 

its a shame as i think it is stymying the dcc sound scene with far fewer purchases........youd think at least the v3.5 would have come down in price but i see people asking the same money for them as a v4.

 

yes we want more features in the sound but we are still on v4 yet the cost continues to rise.

 

most of the £200 plus DS models on ebay will stay on ebay.  There does seem to be some mental break at paying over £170-180 for a sound model.  certainly i wont pay more than that so can only assume im not alone.

 

cant do anything about it but a good rant always blows away a few cobwebs......

[wirey33]

Rails now have these up on their website priced at £121 and £126 respectively; also marked as "soon".

 

Still no indication of which body shells will be used, although with the class 37's due for release all being the centre head code versions (174, 242 and 254) I would think this release will be the same.

 

Although they will also be doing 37428 for the Highlander set, so a 37/4 is another option perhaps?

[Hroth]

...DCC Sound to me is a fad, just like Zero 1, Live Steam etc.

 

I'm betting on a  future, where sound is generated by the PC / iPad etc that will also be controlling your train and is sent as a data stream to your loco at run time and played via it's speaker..

 

much cheaper, less mess, no need to tweak each model and it's settings etc.

 

I wouldn't take your bet.

 

To stream sound across a rail network, without interference, would make the current efforts to make onboard sound work seamlessly across a whole layout pale into insignificance. Its also probable that the data rate required to support an equivalent sound quality to even the most average current sound decoder would severely limit the number of active locos available at any one time.  You'd also need a PC or laptop capable of supporting a pretty high data rate if you wanted to provide direct sound to more than one loco.  I wouldn't like to try and do any of the above with an iPad!

 

Sound has always been something that some people would like to be able to use spice their imagination while running trains. It may be a fad at the present, it may also be an idea who's time is yet to come. If we're going to have it, its better to have a decentralised method of sound production (chips in locos) that work with whatever controller you have to hand, rather than one that relies on a specific device (PC, whatever) that has to host the particular soundfiles for a specific loco and then continuously transmit the correct effect across the electrically complex interface presented by wheels on rails.

 

If sound IS required then on-board sound WILL become cheaper. At present its still at the early-adopter stage but as it starts to hit the mainstream, prices may not "fall" as such, but inflation will catch up and the cost of the sound decoder will become a standard part of producing a model loco.

[JSpencer]

I'd love to get into Sound, but £100 for a chip that costs around £5 to make just smacks of not worth it, tbh the sounds and limited functions don't seem that great overall at least looking at the videos on YT.

 

DCC Sound to me is a fad, just like Zero 1, Live Steam etc.

 

I'm betting on a  future, where sound is generated by the PC / iPad etc that will also be controlling your train and is sent as a data stream to your loco at run time and played via it's speaker..

 

much cheaper, less mess, no need to tweak each model and it's settings etc.

I disagree on it being a fad. Zero 1, being an early digital control system was very very limited. Serious modelers could do more on classic cab control...

 

Live Stream has major constraints:

1) one loco per control

2) huge power requirements

3) loco needs a huge distance to run

4) setting up time is considerable

5) technology is best suited to large engines in the range

7) old fashioned DC locos have to keep well clear

8) a fair degree of initial outlay

If you are persistent, live steam is quite pleasurable I find but I see why many would be put off.

Whether or not live stream actually became a fad, I do not know, but it did not sell fast enough to encourage further developments.

 

DCC sound is an entirely different thing because:

1) it builds upon the modern succesful digital control model railways. If you already have a DCC system for non sound fitted DCC locos, it will operate you DCC sound loco.

2) if you have only classic DC control, it does not matter, most (maybe all?) sound chip models will run like any other classic DC loco only will make noise too (uses a default sound setting)

3) DCC control without sound but with emf feedback, will make your model run outstandingly. Giving realistic accerleration, breaking etc. Sound chips can do exactly the same and associate the correct sounds with it.

4) you can control so many features (normally up to 26 for one loco on a cheap controller), lights on, lights off, horn, wheel squell, diesel start routines, annoucements... The whole taken into a new dimension

5) DCC sound brings alive very small end to end layouts (which would be otherwise quite dull to most joe public)

 

The option of making sound cheap and available for all will only broaden a very solid base.

[NXEA!]

If the economy sound range is a success as I'm sure it will be, can we have an economy sound CEP/EPB pretty please! If I could have that lovely EE507 whine and that loud slamming noise that shook the whole bloody carriage for a bit more ching, they'd be the perfect models... And I'd probably end up buying a few (read at least 10) of each. 

[Dieseldog]

Anybody got any news on these? It seems a long time since they were announced.

[reevesthecat]

According to an email I had. From hattons sometime ago they are cancelled.

Mark